Ryanair has signed its first cabin crew recognition agreement, with the ANPAC and ANPAV unions in Italy, paving the way for the carrier to represent its directly employed cabin crew in Italy. Ryanair has been forced to radically overhaul its approach to its workforce since a flight cancellations crisis sparked by a pilot rostering mix-up brought its tense relationship with staff into the spotlight. The agreement with ANPAC and ANPAV followed extensive negotiations, Ryanair said. Ryanair’s chief people officer Eddie Wilson said: “This is our first cabin crew union recognition agreement, which follows recognition agreements with pilot unions in the UK and Italy earlier this year … we are making good progress with other cabin crew unions across Europe and we hope to sign more recognition agreements...in the coming weeks.” <br/>
unaligned
Boeing will not deliver aircraft to Iran in light of US sanctions, effectively aborting a pair of large contracts with Iranian carriers, a Boeing spokesman said Wednesday. “We have not delivered any aircraft to Iran, and given we no longer have a license to sell to Iran at this time, we will not be delivering any aircraft,” the Boeing spokesman said. “We did not factor the Iran orders into our order backlog either.” The announcement follows US president Donald Trump’s decision last month to pull the US out of the landmark 2015 nuclear accord. Boeing in Dec 2016 announced an agreement to sell 80 aircraft valued at US$16.6b to Iran Air. Boeing also announced a contract in April 2017 to sell Iran Aseman Airlines 30 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft for $3b, with purchase rights for another 30 aircraft. <br/>
Kuwait Airways has appointed aircraft management, marketing and technical services specialist Skytech-AIC to sell 5 of its aircraft. Skytech-AIC will dispose of 4 Airbus A340-300s and a single Boeing 747-400. The A340s have been grounded for around a year, while the 747 is still in occasional service. “Even though we’ve not put out any information [on the aircraft] we’ve had a lot of interest expressed, but primarily from the part-out market,” Skytech-AIC co-director Richard Noble said. “A high percentage of the [A340s’] airframe parts are common with the A330, which increases the market for them quite considerably.” However, there were other possible options for the A340s, which were built in the mid-1990s. The single 747-400 had been used by the emir of Kuwait as a personal aircraft on occasions. <br/>
India's federal police will again ask AirAsia Group's CE to appear for questioning over allegations the airline broke rules to obtain a flying license in the country, a source said Wednesday, after he failed to answer a previous request. Friday a police source said the airline's CE, Tony Fernandes, had been asked to appear before India's Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) June 6. AirAsia, however, said it had received no such summons, which had also been reported by other media. When asked Wednesday, the federal police source repeated that a summons had been made, but declined to comment on whether it had been delivered as a written notice or in another form, saying that such details of the investigation were confidential. <br/>
Emirates Airline has unveiled a new first class suite on board its latest aircraft that features virtual windows. Instead of being able to see directly outside, passengers view images projected in from outside the aircraft using fibre-optic cameras. The airline says it paves the way for removing all windows from future planes, making them lighter and faster. Emirates president Tim Clark said the images were "so good, it's better than with the natural eye". The virtual windows can be found in the first class cabin of Emirates' newest Boeing 777-300ER aircraft. Clark that the ultimate aim was to have planes with no windows at all. "Now you have one fuselage which has no structural weaknesses because of windows. The aircraft are lighter, the aircraft could fly faster, they'll burn far less fuel and fly higher." <br/>